Jumping to Conclusions -- Bad Luck Strikes H.S. TJ:er

[lonewolf]

We see full-meter errors in the long jump every year, pretty much. Average official has no feel for what the marks really mean in metric, so no alarm bells go off.

That is scary..
Long throwers might not be able to tell the difference in 70 or 71 meters but a jumper knows the difference in 6 or 7 meters and I do not understand any athlete accepting a one meter gift.. maybe that is just the Pollyanna in me..
Pit officials, even "non-professional" volunteer/rakers, have pitside reference points and frequently make a game of guessing distances before they are measured.

When required to record imperial, I make it a practice to announce the distance as 23 Feet 3 and 3 quarter inches.. not just 23-3and3 quarters ..
The phrasing may vary... the important thing is to establish a style to eliminate possible misunderstanding by the recorder and for recorder to repeat it back..and, if you have the luxury of enough help to have a second recorder, don't worry about redundancy, use him/her..even if he/she is not skilled in running a bubble you will have backup record in that one time in a hundred (thousand?) you need it.

[EPelle]

(A little late, nonetheless, she signed with UAB last week: http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=15735)